


Childminders

by Higgystar



Category: Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: AU, Kink Meme, Pre-Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-29
Updated: 2014-05-29
Packaged: 2018-01-27 02:29:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1711673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Higgystar/pseuds/Higgystar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt from the kink meme: Pre-Apocalypse. Merle and Daryl are picked up by the cops after Merle has been harassing a lady in a bar. Whilst they wait for the parents to come get Daryl, Rick and Shane have to look after the kid. Slight AU to make the ages all co-operate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Childminders

They’d flipped a coin in the car on the way back to the station and Rick had ended up losing miserably, leaving Shane grinning like a fool at him as he took the still swearing Merle Dixon in for questioning. Now here he was, sat in the waiting area of their small police station and looking after Dixon the younger until someone came to get him, Merle managed bail or child services appeared to take the kid off his hands. Shane had laughed, told him it would be good practice for when he had kids of his own, and leaving Rick giving him the finger. He and Lori had only just gotten engaged they weren’t going to be having any kids any time soon, not if he could help it.

Sighing to himself he slumps in the uncomfortable plastic chair besides the kid and wonders just how he’s going to manage to keep him entertained for the next few hours. Rick was not good with kids, he’d never really been able to make a fool of himself like some adults did with kids, uncaring of how they looked so long as the kid was smiling. Daryl Dixon was not smiling, in fact the kid looked as pissed off as Rick felt at being put in this position. Still it was a part of the job and you had to take the good bits with the crap.

“Want a soda or anything?” He asks the kid begrudgingly after a few minutes and gets nothing more than a scowl in answer. Daryl instead folds his arms, hiding his hands beneath the too long sleeves of the shirt and huddling into a ball on the seat. Rick shrugs, well he’d tried to be nice and the kid was clearly about as rude as his brother was, no point pushing the matter. “Stay here then, I’m going to grab a coffee.”

Daryl doesn’t respond, he just picks at his worn out sneakers and stays quiet in his chair, letting Rick push through to the office behind the desk and grab himself a shitty cup of coffee. It was the usual cheap shit but it was better than sitting out there with nothing and trying to think of how to start a conversation with an eight year old boy. He doesn’t remember what he liked at that age, probably god awful tv shows, playing out in the dirt and making as much trouble as possible, not things he could provide in a waiting room.

The kid is small for his age, a scrawny looking thing with barely anything in his appearance alike to Merle’s. The older Dixon was well known in town, a nuisance, the kind of guy that couldn’t have a quiet night and had to find trouble somehow. Tonight he’d been bugging one of the locals, drunk and aggressive when she’d refused and Rick had to wonder exactly why the Dixon was out on the pull with his kid brother following alongside. It was ridiculous, the kid shouldn’t even be out in bars let alone with his drunk and problematic brother.

Heading back to the shitty plastic chair he finds Daryl watching him from behind his knees quietly before hiding back away, as if worried that he’d been caught looking. Rick doesn’t mention it and just retakes his seat, sipping on the awful coffee and wishing the minutes would just tick down faster. It was already getting late, surely it couldn’t be too long until one of the Dixon parents came to get their youngest son? The kid was eight, heck Rick was sure most kids his age were probably in bed by now let alone sitting in a police station whilst their brother got a night in the cells.

He fidgets, taps his foot, jiggles his knee, scans the place for a newspaper or something to do before sighing again. Not five minutes has passed. Dammit. The station is quiet for the moment, the only other people in for the night shift were Shane and Cindy, his partner in the back office dealing with paperwork and Cindy keeping the place ticking over until the morning shift started. Maybe he should ask her what to do with the kid, surely she’d have some kind of maternal instinct or something that would give her a hint?

“How’s school?” That was something he knew kids of Daryl’s age had to go through and surely they could find something in there to talk about? The kid shrugs but pulls a face that Rick knows he’d pulled at that age, and he can agree with the emotion behind it. “Yeah I hated it too. Nothing worse than being locked in a classroom all day and having to do boring sums.” Glancing over to Daryl he finds the kid watching him and gives a small smile, trying to coax some kind of conversation with him.

It doesn’t work and Daryl goes back to picking at his shoes, fidgeting as much as Rick had been before and looking just as uncomfortable as he felt. It’s a relief when Shane comes out of the office, giving him a tight smile and waving some fully filled out paperwork. “Dixon is all checked in for the night, he’s not going anywhere unless someone pays his bail for him.” Shane settles himself behind the front desk and Rick is about to go over to join his friend when Daryl gets up from his seat and trudges over to his partner instead. “You still here kid?”

Daryl nods with a frown and begins fishing in his pockets, producing a quarter and holding it out to Shane with a nod. Rick moves to stand beside the kid, leaning on the desk and watching as his partner takes the coin with a questioning look to Rick. “What’s that for bud?” He asks, hoping for an actual answer and not just another shrug this time.

“Bail.” Daryl mutters, moving his hand up to his mouth and chewing on his nail as he watches them both, his eyes darting between the two of them as if he’s afraid of being reprimanded. “For Merle.” He explains, gesturing to the coin as if it should be all they needed to unlock the cell and let his brother go free.

It’s both humorous and heartbreaking, causing Shane to laugh a little at the whole scenario and Rick finds himself leaning down to come level with Daryl. “It doesn’t work like that bud, it takes a lot more money than a quarter to pay for someone’s bail. I’m sorry, but I’m sure your brother appreciates the thought.”

Daryl looks so cushed that he almost wants to ignore the law and let Merle Dixon go free but his hands are tied as are Shane’s and there’s nothing more they can do in this situation. “I ain’t got no more.” Daryl explains, folding his arms on the desk and resting his chin on them, gazing at the coin still held in Shane’s grasp and sighing.

His partner hands the quarter back to the kid with a smile and Rick is glad Shane is here to help, the man had always been better with kids than he was. “Here, why don’t you take this back and go see if it works in the vending machine?” when Daryl looks up with a look of distrust on his face Shane gives a nod, reassuring the kid that we was allowed to do so.

The kid heads over to the other side of the room and Rick finds himself leaning over the desk to hiss to Shane. “Don’t leave me out here again, you know I know nothing about kids.”

His best friend rolls his eyes at him, and Rick knows he’s acting as if this is the end of the world, but right now he can’t deal with anymore awkward silences. “Come on Rick it ain’t that difficult, just play nice.” Shane explains and Rick can see he wants to go home, that now his job was done Shane wanted to clock out and probably find someone willing to share his bed with him.

“He’s said more to you in the past two minutes than he has to me this whole time Shane. God knows how long his parents are going to take and I am not sitting here twiddling my thumbs whilst he sits in silence.” It’s pathetic, he knows he’s a grown man but for some reason the kid makes him feel awkward and he has no idea how to deal with it.

Shane lets out a groan, looking at him with a glint in his eyes that says Rick is going to be making this up to him at some point. He can see the moment his best friend gives in and he can’t help but grin when Shane stands from behind the desk. “My God what would you do without me?”

He smiles brightly, noting that Shane is grinning back. “Probably end up on the floor crying for you to come help me.” Rick admits, trying not to feel as pathetic as he’s been sounding these past few minutes.

“You got that right.” Shane agrees and grabs a few things from behind the desk before coming out to join Rick in the waiting area, sitting on the awful plastic chair beside him with a shake of his head. “Okay fine I’ll stay here with you, ain’t like I was planning on sleeping or anything tonight.”

Rick knows he hadn’t been thinking of doing anything even remotely related to sleeping, but he doesn’t bring it up, especially not when the kid returns with a pack of peanut butter cups and looks to be in a much better mood than before. “I see you found something you like then?”

Daryl nods and scoots back into his seat, fingers already covered in chocolate and seeming far too focussed on nibbling off the chocolate coating before licking at the peanut butter in the centre to reply. Shane smirks and Rick doesn’t understand why it’s so easy for the other man to talk to the kid. “They your favourite?” Daryl nods, not even pausing or looking worried like he had with Rick before. Did he look stern or something? “You know they’re Rick’s favourite too, I bet he could eat fifty of them in one go. Think you could do that?”

It’s a stupid question, of course he couldn’t eat fifty in one go; he’d like to he just probably couldn’t manage it even if they were his favourite. He wonders why Shane is asking such a dumb question when the kid laughs a little and nods before speaking without too much coaxing. “I could eat a hundred.”

“A whole hundred?” Shane gasps as if it’s the most incredible thing he’s ever heard and Rick wonders exactly how the hell he got to be so good with kids. “Wow, that is a lot of peanut butter cups, I don’t think Rick could manage that. We’ll have to have a competition between to two of you one day and see who can eat the most.” It’s ridiculous, completely stupid and in now way does Rick ever think such a thing would ever occur, but Shane is grinning and the kid is nodding between licks of his treat and fingers.

“I’ll win.” Daryl looks so sure of himself, finishing off his chocolate and licking his fingers clean as he glances to Rick with a shrug. “But we’ll need a lot of quarters though, I ain’t got no more.” In a second he’s back to talking to Shane, and Rick really does wonder if he’s scary looking or something.

“I’m sure we could find some.” Shane grins and grabs at one of the sheets of paper he’d brought over with him, folding it along the centre and following through with more folds and turns here and there. Rick almost snorts at the familiar motions, feeling certain that Shane might actually be just one big kid.

Daryl leans over in his seat, possibly trying to be subtle but failing miserably as he ends up peering over Shane’s shoulder to see what he’s creating in his lap. “What you making?” The kid asks and Rick can see he flinches back a little and chews on his thumb when Shane looks up at him, as if he’s scared of being reprimanded for asking.

“Well see I figured I’ve got my cap, Rick’s got his big ol’ Sheriff’s hat and you don’t have a hat at all.” Shane explains, folding the last few creases before holding up the finished paper hat product. “That doesn’t seem very fair does it? So I thought I’d make you one.” He hands over the crafted hat to Daryl and the kid looks so delighted it’s incredible to think such a simple thing could mean so much. Why hadn’t Rick thought of that?

“Can it have a star on it too?” Daryl spins the thing in his hand, looking up at their own hats before picking at the front of his own, fidgeting a little and biting on his lip.

Shane grins and takes the hat from his hands and Rick is surprised when he hands it over to him along with a bright yellow felt tip pen. “Sure, Rick’ll draw one on the front won’t you Rick?” His friend prods at his side and between Shane’s smile and the way Daryl is looking up at him he has to nod in reply.

“Yeah, sure.” He starts drawing, art had never been his strong point but he figures he’s doing well enough really even if Shane does jog him when he jabs at his side again. Looking up he finds his friend tilting his head towards the kid and Rick knows he was trying to encourage him to try a bit harder. Clearing his throat he tries to smile encouragingly to Daryl when he speaks. “Want a big one or a small one?”

The kid grins and is off his seat, standing before the two of them and watching as Rick continues drawing. “Big one, the biggest one.” He demands and of course he’d want the biggest one, because he was at the age where everything bigger was better no matter what the circumstances.

“The biggest one?” He nods and goes over his crappy drawing of a star, making sure to double the size of it and be glad the pen didn’t show his first much smaller attempt very well. “I’m sure I can do that.”

Daryl watches, chewing on his thumb and Rick can feel Shane beside him judging his handiwork as if he could do any better. He’s surprised when the kid talks to him without any prodding. “You ain’t mean like Merle said.”

“Merle said that?” He raises an eyebrow, pausing in his work to watch as the kid nods in reply, picking at his nail before biting it again between words.

“Yeah, he said all cops are meanie SOBs and I should never ever talk to them ever cause they’d lock me up and throw away the key.” Rick wondered if Daryl even knew what an SOB was, but he figured if the kid didn’t then it wasn’t his place to explain. Instead he shakes his head and tries to reassure the kid that he certainly wasn’t one anyway.

“We could never lock you up, you’re far too well behaved to have to be locked up.” Rick mutters and for a moment he pauses when Daryl looks down the hall to the holding cells and he thinks he’s fucked it all up, mentioning people being bad and deserving to be locked up when they had the kid’s brother here had not been the best plan. But then he places the hat on Daryl’s head and it seems everything is forgiven. “And here is your hat sir.”

The kid grins and yanks the thing so hard onto his head Rick is surprised it doesn’t rip. Instead it sits there on the kid’s messy hair, a bright yellow badly drawn star coloured in on the front of it and though it wasn’t perfect it seemed to be good enough to make Daryl smile. The kid hops about the waiting room in it, bending to see his reflection in the metal edging on the front desk and frowning a little. “It ain’t as good as yours though.”

Shane laughs a little at that and Rick is waiting for the mocking of how bad a job he’d managed, but instead his partner stands up to walk over to the kid, taking off his cap and holding it out to him. “Wanna trade?”

Rick thinks the kid might just fucking burst he looks so excited as he jumps in place, bouncing up and down happily for a moment that Rick wonders if maybe candy wasn’t such a good idea this late at night. “Yeah!” Daryl yanks off his own hat, baring his head for Shane to place the too big cap on top of his hair and Rick has to smile when it flops down over Daryl’s eyes. “It’s a bit big.” The kid giggles, tipping it back to see properly and frowning when he looks up at Shane. “But now you don’t have a hat, how will people know you’re a cop Officer Shane?”

Making his own way over Rick grabs his own hat, shoving it on Shane’s head as a solution to the problem. “There, now they know.”

“But now you don’t have a hat Officer Rick.” Daryl bites on his lip before offering his own paper hat up to him, Rick taking it gratefully before placing it on his head. It’s far too small, but it sits there well enough for his liking and Daryl is smiling so he figures it’s good enough. “Fixed it.”

All right, maybe this whole kid thing wasn’t so hard after all, but Rick is still glad to have Shane there with him as the hours drag on whilst they wait for Daryl’s parents to appear. Shane seems to have an endless list of games for them to play, including using tape and the floor tiles to make a hopscotch, teaching Daryl the floor is lava wasted a good half an hour, drawing over scrap paper and teaching Daryl how to make paper hats takes up even more time but soon enough it’s awkward o’ clock in the morning and the kid is exhausted.

It’s no surprise to Rick when the kid slumps into his side, fast asleep and sucking on his thumb quietly after being kept up so late. He’d expected the kid to give in way before this, but now here he was with his best friend, a kid that was neither of theirs, no sign of his parents or child services in sight and no clue what to do. Shane yawns himself, heading to the office to get them both some coffee when Rick doesn’t want to disturb the sleeping kid who’s still wearing Shane’s cap on his head.

They talk away the next hour between themselves, talking about nothing much in particular until they’re interrupted by the front doors slamming open and a red faced man storming in through them. Daryl jerks awake at the noise, upset at being awoken and rubbing at his eyes sleepily as he buries closer to Rick. Shane gets up to deal with the man and it’s very clear from his shouting and behaviour that he was here to, “bail out my damned piece of shit son again.”

Daryl doesn’t let go of his sleeve the whole time his father is there and Rick doesn’t have the heart to make him got to his father if he didn’t want to. Honestly the entire time he’s been here the man hasn’t mentioned his youngest son once, far too concerned with Merle being nothing but a waste of his money and pain in his ass apparently. Shane does the honours of getting the Dixon from the holding cell, letting him yank on his boots and follow him back into the waiting room.

Rick is surprised by the behaviour of Merle Dixon, as soon as he’s in the room he’s heading over to him, picking up a still sleepy Daryl and letting the kid drop his head to his shoulder quietly without even glancing his father’s way. Daryl clings to Merle with his free hand, burying closer to him in what was clearly a well rehearsed move and staying away from their father as Shane deals with personal items and signing paperwork. Merle deal with it all one handed easily, and at no point does his father offer to take Daryl to make it all easier. It’s strange behaviour to observe and he finds himself standing beside the Dixon family when the father doesn’t stop his ranting.

“Sir if you don’t keep your voice down and your keep your language clean then you might end up in a cell yourself.” His voice is stern, as authoritarian as he can make it and it’s not until the eldest Dixon is simply staring at his head that he realises he’s still wearing the paper police hat. Snatching it off his head he clears his throat, hoping to ignore that moment of embarrassment and still have his threat remain clear.

Daryl and Merle’s father sneers at him, muttering to himself but not raising his voice as he goes to leave the station, barking for his son to follow him and bring the brat with him. Merle looks pissed but Rick can see the way he’s holding himself back, practically the same age as Rick and dealing with a kid brother more than their own father was. He didn’t envy him at all, he’d barely been able to cope with Daryl for one evening, he didn’t think he could cope with caring for a child every day.

Shane comes out from behind the desk and removes the sheriff’s hat from his head, placing it back where it belonged on Rick’s own head. “Keep yourself out of trouble Dixon.” He reminds Merle, and Rick can tell Shane isn’t feeling nearly as aggravated with the man as he was when they took his in earlier in the evening.

His brother squirms in his arms, whining a little around his thumb and nudging at Merle’s chin before the elder Dixon rocks him quietly, helping him settle again before he reaches to grab the hat from Daryl’s head. “This yours?” He offers the hat to Shane with a shrug.

His partner takes it with a nod and Rick steps forward, handing the paper hat to Merle with a small smile. “And this is his. Take care of your brother Dixon.” He nods, Merle simply gives a snort of acknowledgement before leaving the station, taking himself and Daryl from their lives for the time being.


End file.
